Country artists weigh in on Internet radio legislation

Clint Black, Vince Gill and Jana Kramer are among the 125 signatories of an open letter opposing internet radio station Pandora's Congressional request to lower its royalty payment rates.

Pandora is supporting a bill called the “Internet Radio Fairness Act” that proposes to significantly lower the company’s costs by putting Internet radio services under the same royalty payment structure applied to cable and satellite radio services.

Pandora has argued that the current rate structure puts the company at a disadvantage and is discriminatory.

The bill is supported by the National Association of Broadcasters, a lobbying group that represents 15,000 radio stations in the United States. But it is opposed by MusicFirst, a group backed by major record companies, who argue that the bill would subsidize Pandora’s operations.

MusicFirst and SoundExchange, a nonprofit performance rights organization that represents the recorded music industry sponsored the opposition letter, which will be published in this weekend’s Billboard magazine.

“Pandora is now enjoying phenomenal success as a Wall Street company. ... At the same time, the music community is just now beginning to gain its footing in this new digital world,” reads the letter, which also is signed by Katy Perry, Rihanna and Maroon 5. “Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon? That’s not fair and that’s not how partners work together.”